Flying Oskar: Spartanburg GOP Wants You (If You're Conservative Enough)

I don’t generally write about internal drama within Spartanburg’s political parties. The reasoning behind this decision is simple enough really. With few exceptions, I don’t really think much of what goes on at the local party level is very interesting. From what I can gather as an outsider with very few personal dealings with either local party, the internal changes and power struggles within the parties don’t really add up to very much on Election Day, at least not in a GOP “landslide county” like Spartanburg.

In our information-soaked, highly partisan nation, local parties are really little more than ideological clubs, organized by and for the county’s most passionate and partisan politicos.

That’s not to say that the local parties don’t serve a valuable function. They recruit and groom candidates, raise money for those candidates, and help with some of the grassroots organizing that’s normally so crucial in county elections. Because of the deep national partisan divide though, and the fact that usually the most partisan are also the most involved, all of this is usually done in a sort of echo chamber.

Occasionally though, what happens in that echo chamber can give clues about something important in the larger political landscape, and from time to time it can even have a serious impact on that landscape.

It’s that echo chamber’s potential effect that I had on my mind this past Friday when I read Jason Spencer’s excellent article in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal on a relatively new Spartanburg County GOP policy which requires any candidate speaking at the party’s meetings to sign a statement saying they support the South Carolina Republican Party platform (click here to download PDF) and the U.S. Constitution. Any candidate who disagrees with a portion of the platform must explain why.

In short, the Spartanburg County Republican Party has instituted a loyalty test for political candidates.

County GOP Chairwoman LaDonna Ryggs defended the move saying, “Most of us agree, at least generally, with all of the platform. We are fiscal conservatives. Most of us are social conservatives. We all believe in strong national security…and that’s what we wanted under our banner: If you want to run with us, then you need to generally agree with our platform.”

And there it is, the post-election Republican Party’s ideological purge finally spelled out as official GOP policy here in Spartanburg. Who knew that all it would take to push them over the edge was the election of a liberal black guy as President?

Despite Ryggs’ and others’ claims to the contrary, the intention of this move is pretty clear. If you’re not prepared to toe the reactionary line then you’d better find yourself another party because the GOP doesn’t want you around.

Do you consider yourself a conservative but think that Act 388 has unduly hampered school districts by tying their funding to fluctuating sales tax revenue instead of the more stable property tax revenue? You’d better be ready to explain yourself if you plan to run for office as a Republican in Spartanburg, because you’re not in agreement with the platform’s tax policy which states: “The Party calls on our Statehouse and Congressional delegations to stand firm in opposing new tax increases or the reversal of successful tax cuts.” Repealing Act 388 would technically be a tax increase, though it would only increase property taxes to the level they were before the bill was passed.

Maybe you consider yourself a loyal Republican, but you’re not too keen on the idea of banning students from forming groups or clubs based on sexual orientation. You’d better not sign that pledge then because as it happens you’re at odds with this line from the platform: “Clubs and observances that are based on sexual orientation are inappropriate for academic institutions.” What if you don’t like the idea of vesting more power in the state’s Executive Branch? I’m afraid you might find yourself disagreeing with practically the entire section on “Government Restructuring” in the GOP platform.

Three are literally hundreds of other possible examples, and they all spell out the same thing. If you’re not ready to walk lockstep with everything the GOP stands for, you’d better get out now. 95% agreement won’t cut it anymore.

Beyond the raw amusement that comes from watching the county Republican Party’s attempt to shrink itself until all that’s left is a flock of parrots squawking the same ideas back and forth at each other there’s a question: what, if anything, does this mean for the 2010 election season and to the future of politics in Spartanburg?

If this move towards ideological purity tests is any indicator of where the mindset of local Republicans is then the first thing it means is that Republicans running for office in 2010 are likely to be far more extreme in their conservatism than many of those who’ve run in the past. Mainstream conservatives like Rep. Bob Inglis are likely to find themselves voted out in next year’s GOP primary, replaced by political reactionaries deemed worthy by the far right.

And what about the more reasonable Republicans? What happens to them once they’ve been shown the door? While I doubt they’ll be beating down the doors of the Democratic Party, I wouldn’t be surprised to see many of them pulling back from the local party, and taking their money with them. Losing the moderates themselves might not mean much to the local party, but losing the large checks some of those moderates have written most certainly will.

As for the Democrats, I’m not so sure what this means for them. Spartanburg County is still overwhelmingly Republican, and while its true that there’s talk nationally of the Republican Party becoming a regional party as it shrinks itself by taking a turn towards the hard right, nobody’s forecasting an end to GOP dominance in South Carolina. Though I’d like to say otherwise, I see no reason to believe that Spartanburg County would be an exception to that.

That’s not to say there won’t be an opportunity to pick up a seat here or there, but local Democrats will still be fighting an uphill battle in a county where the “R” beside the candidate’s name is usually enough to ensure victory in a general election. It’s easy to see the margin of victory for GOP candidates taking a hit because of all this, but as things are they’ve got plenty of margin to spare.

If I’m right in assuming that Spartanburg is still firmly in the Republican camp then the party’s shift to the right is really Spartanburg’s shift, and that thought scares the hell out of me. I’ve spent my entire adult life railing against the policies of mainstream conservatives, and now I worry that I may end up looking back on those times as the good old days. My worst nightmare is that I’ll remember fondly a time back when fighting for public education didn’t include fighting for its very survival, or when arguing over protecting our environment was about arguing about what should be done and not over whether anything should be done at all.

When you get past all that though, there’s some real entertainment to be had watching the fallout over the county party’s new purity test. This battle for the soul of the Republican Party is political theater at its finest. When you have someone like former county GOP Chairman Rick Beltram—a man who seems to be willing to give the SH-J a quote on pretty much anything—saying that the new policy “smacks of Nazism”, you know its time to get out the popcorn and watch the show.

Leaving aside Beltram’s fairly insulting misuse of hyperbolic comparison and his obvious grudge against the current Spartanburg GOP leadership, the policy itself is pretty laughable. What does it matter if a candidate disagrees with one plank in the platform? Is it really important that candidates agree with their party all the time?

If I only voted for candidates I agreed with all the time I’d have to write in my own name for every election. I’m usually lucky if I can even find a candidate I agree with most of the time, especially if we’re talking about the moderate Democrats I end up voting for at the state and county level.

I don’t have a clue what this new local GOP policy will ultimately mean for Spartanburg’s political picture. It could be the beginning of a larger war within the party that may weaken it to such a point that local Democrats could actually become competitive. On the other hand, that battle between mainstream conservatives and right-wing hardliners may completely consume the county and the state’s political debate, leaving progressives and their ideas completely out of the conversation. Frankly, I’m apprehensive about either one of those outcomes, but that’s still not going to keep me from enjoying the show.

If there’s going to be a prolonged war within the Spartanburg County Republican Party, at the very least I hope it stays this entertaining.